This invention relates to a robot apparatus and method for controlling its actions. More particularly, it relates to a robot apparatus having plural action means and a method for controlling its actions.
In recent years, a robot apparatus formed after the appearance of an animal, such as a dog, is being presented to the market. This robot apparatus acts like an animal, responsive to the information from outside or to its own internal state, such as its feeling state.
Meanwhile, in this type of the robot apparatus, its action parts can be activated independently of one another. Thus, if the plural action parts are to be activated synchronously, synchronized control is required for the robot apparatus. For example, in certain robot apparatus, the movement of eyes, formed by LEDs, and the speech output by e.g., a loudspeaker, can be executed synchronously as the posture of the robot apparatus is progressively changed by controlling respective joints. In such case, the various action parts must be controlled synchronously.
In such synchronous control of respective action parts, synchroneity must be set as from the timing the synchronized actions are started, while synchroneity must continue to be set during the actions.
The reason is that, if the control synchroneity falls into disorder, the actions by the respective action parts occur irrelevantly without harmony.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described status of the related art, and is aimed to provide a robot apparatus in which plural action parts can be synchronized accurately and efficiently, and a method for controlling the actions of such robot apparatus.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention provides a robot apparatus including a plurality of action means for performing actions, and control means for controlling the actions of the plural action means. The control means causes the plural action means to perform actions in synchronization with each other in succession to a preceding action performed by the action means.
This robot apparatus performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention also provides an action control method for the robot apparatus wherein the synchronous actions by the plural action means are carried out as temporally late actions in succession to a preceding action performed by the action means.
By this action control method of the robot apparatus, the robot apparatus is able to performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention also provides a robot apparatus including a plurality of action performing means for performing actions, and a plurality of action control means for controlling the action performing means, in which the robot apparatus further includes command control means for outputting a plurality of synchronization commands relevant to action performing commands for causing the robot apparatus to perform preset actions, and command transmission control means for controlling the synchronization commands output by the command control means to send the synchronization commands to the plural action control means. The command control means affords a label indicating at least the IDs of the synchronization commands to be synchronized and the total number of the synchronization commands to be synchronized to each of the plural synchronization commands to output the synchronization commands. The command transmission control means sends the plural synchronization commands in synchroneity based on the IDs and the total number.
This robot apparatus performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention also provides a method for controlling the actions of a robot apparatus including a plurality of action performing means for performing actions, and a plurality of action control means for controlling the plural action performing means, in which the method includes a step of command control means affording a label indicating at least the IDs of the synchronization commands to be synchronized and the total number of the synchronization commands to be synchronized to each of plural synchronization commands relevant to the action performing commands which cause the robot apparatus to perform preset actions. The synchronization commands output by the command control means are controlled by command transmission control means to cause the plural synchronization commands to be synchronized based on the IDs and the total number to send the synchronization commands to the plural action control means.
By this action control method for the robot apparatus, the robot apparatus performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention also provides a robot apparatus including a plurality of action performing means for performing actions and a plurality of action control means for controlling the actions of the plural action performing means, in which the robot apparatus further includes command control means for outputting a plurality of synchronization commands relevant to action performing commands for performing preset actions of the robot apparatus, a plurality of buses over which the action performing commands are transmitted, a plurality of command transmission control means provided for each of the buses for controlling the synchronization commands output by the command control means and for transmitting the synchronization commands to the plural action control means, and a co-owned memory that can be accessed by the plural command transmission control means. The command control means affords a label at least indicating the IDs of the synchronization commands to be synchronized and the total number of the synchronization commands to be synchronized to each of the plural synchronization commands, and outputs the synchronization command. The command transmission control means causes the IDs and the total number to be stored in the co-owned memory and references the co-owned memory to synchronize the plural synchronization commands to send the synchronized synchronization commands to the action control means over the buses.
This robot apparatus performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
For accomplishing the above object, the present invention also provides a method for controlling the actions of a robot apparatus including a plurality of action performing means for performing actions, and a plurality of action control means for controlling the actions of the plural action performing means, in which the method includes a step of command control means affording a label indicating at least the IDs of the synchronization commands to be synchronized and the total number of the synchronization commands to be synchronized to each of the plural synchronization commands relevant to the action performing commands which cause the robot apparatus to perform preset actions. On each of plural buses used for transmitting the commands, there is provided command transmission control means for controlling the synchronization commands output by the command control means to cause the IDs and the total number to be stored in the co-owned memory. The command transmission control means references the co-owned memory to synchronize the synchronization commands that can be accessed by the plural command transmission control means to transmit the synchronization commands to the plural command transmission control means over the buses.
By this action control method for the robot apparatus, the robot apparatus performs synchronous actions in succession without delay following the completion of the previous actions.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from reading the embodiments of the present invention as shown in the drawings.